Bhutan observes the 1st World Wildlife Day

Yesterday, WWF Bhutan Program joined hands with the Department of Forest and Park Services to commemorate the World Wildlife Day.

The World Wildlife Day was declared in 2013 by the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly when the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) of Wild Fauna and Flora was adopted. Bhutan became party to CITES in early twenties.

Addressing the gathering at the Clock Tower Square in Thimphu, Vijay Moktan, the Conservation Director of WWF Bhutan, said that the goal of such an event is to raise awareness on world's wild fauna and flora, and to inform people on global conservation crisis that the world faces today.

He said that while the world is rapidly losing biodiversity – the very diversity on which the human life depends such as water, food and clean air, there is a need for us to take a collective responsibility to protect it.

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment report (2005) highlights a substantial and largely irreversible loss in the diversity of life on Earth, with some 10-30% of the mammal, bird and amphibian species threatened with extinction, due to human actions.